Israel to revoke press card of Al-Jazeera reporter
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E-mail Xinhua, August 17, 2017
JERUSALEM, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Israel said Wednesday it has decided to revoke the press card of an Al-Jazeera reporter, a week after it announced plans to close the local branch of the "hostile" TV news broadcaster.
Government Press Office (GPO) Director Nitzan Chen said in a statement that the press card of Al-Jazeera senior Jerusalem correspondent, Elias Karram, will be revoked, with a hearing pending.
Karram is accused by the GPO of "taking an active part" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is questioned about his ability to cover the conflict "professionally."
The allegation came from, according to the GPO, an interview that Karram gave to Dar al-Iman TV network on May 26, 2016, in which Karram said that "as a Palestinian journalist in an occupied area or in a conflict zone, media work is an integral part of the resistance and its educational political activity. The journalist fulfills his role in the opposition with the pen, voice or camera because he is part of this people and he carries out resistance in his unique way."
Chen said that the content of the interview was delivered to him this week by Communications Minister Ayoob Kara and the prime minister's spokesman for the Arab Media, Ofir Gendelman.
Chen added that Kara recently contacted him and requested that press cards of Al-Jazeera personnel in Israel be revoked on the grounds that the network was "inciting and agitating violence in a way that harmed the security of the state."
According to Chen, "whoever takes an active part in a political struggle should do so in the framework of the law, but without press credentials from the State of Israel."
Foreign journalists need to hold GPO cards to enter official events and to get in and out of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Karram, 40, an Arab Israeli citizen and a resident of the Nazareth city in northern Israel, has carried a GPO card with Al-Jazeera since 2011.
The move followed a statement released on Aug. 6 by the communications minister, in which he announced plans to shut down Al-Jazeera's local offices after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Qatar-based TV of incitement.
Kara also said he had approached local cable and satellite providers and asked them to turn off the station's broadcasts, with affirmative responds from the companies.
Constituting about 20 percent of Israel's population, Israeli Arabs are Palestinians who stayed put during the 1948 war between Israel and the Arab coalition, and became citizens after the statehood of Israel. Enditem
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